2016 First Quarter Employment, Posted: 13 Oct 2016 12:39 PM PDT By Scott Goldsmith: The Alaska economy contracted at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2016 according to the final count by the Alaska Department of Labor.  Employment was 4.5 thousand lower in the first quarter than the previous year.  Growth slowed through early 2015 and turned negative in the second half of the year. The drop was most pronounced in four sectors.  Petroleum was down 13 percent, a loss of 1.9 thousand jobs.  Business services [...]

TransCanada offering a deal for Alberta natural gas shippers  -  Calgary Herald Calgary Herald Homepage ... Reader says 76,000 kilometres of pipelines are on the books or under construction worldwide. ... TransCanada Corp. is offering lower-priced long-term contracts for Alberta natural gas shippers that ... The Calgary-based company says its proposal for a new round of binding .... From our Mid-Atlantic energy analyst friend (Anonymous): Thesis: Crude oil producers have become akin to utilities. They have relatively high fixed costs, through contractual commitments (including debt, rigs rentals, throughput [...]

Daily Planet by Tom Brennan.  Things seem to be looking up for Alaska. It may be, as the fella says, we’ve been down so long it looks like up to us. But I don’t think so. First and perhaps foremost is the announcement by Caelus Energy that its discovery at Smith Bay off the North Slope coast is likely to produce at least 200,000 barrels a day of light oil for shipment south through the trans-Alaska pipeline.

Do we wish Arctic Gas had been constructed? The $20 Billion Arctic Pipeline That Will Haunt Canada Forever.  Motherboard.  The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, later called the Mackenzie Gas Project, would snake 2400 miles across the northern Arctic shore from Alaska, through....

ConocoPhillips Contracts for a New Extended Reach Drilling Rig ANCHORAGE, Alaska – ConocoPhillips Alaska today announced it has signed a contract with Doyon Drilling Inc. to build a new Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) Rig. The rig will initially target development of Fiord West, a field northwest of the main Alpine pad discovered in 1996. The ERD rig represents the third new-build drilling rig ConocoPhillips has contracted for since SB21 was passed in 2013. The new ERD rig will increase the area that can be developed from a drill site from [...]

Governor Bill Walker's Alaska Gasline Team Gets Asian Audience But No Deals Alaska Public Media by Rashah McChesney.  ... And, while they didn’t return with any firm commitments to buy into the project, Alaska Gasline Development Corp. President Keith Meyer said the team made progress. “I would say we moved the ball quite a bit. Now we didn’t sign MOUs (memorandums of agreement) and we’re a little ways from that. What we’re doing now is raising awareness. Also correcting, as the governor indicated, correcting some misperceptions out there that the project had stopped. [...]

Petroleum News, by Tim Bradner.  A joint-venture marketing arrangement for North Slope liquefied natural gas announced Sept. 21 between ConocoPhillips and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., the state gas corporation, is a step toward a similar arrangement that had been discussed earlier but rejected among the four partners now in the current Alaska LNG Project. CBC by Catharine Tunney.  'Patience is running out' with Trudeau's Liberals...." Assembly of First Nations (AFN) national chief Perry Bellegarde walks tightrope on divisive pipeline projects What's next for Pacific NorthWest LNG project? [...]

ConocoPhillips Sets Alaska Drilling Record ANCHORAGE, Alaska – ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. announced yesterday that it achieved a drilling record for Alaska at drill site CD5 in the Colville River Unit (Alpine) on Alaska’s North Slope. CD5 is the first commercial oil development on Alaska Native lands within the boundaries of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). Doyon Rig 19 drilled a horizontal injection well 26,196 feet, a record for overall measured length of a well for the state. The well was drilled to a true vertical depth of approximately 7,400 feet [...]

ov Walker administration goes clueless in pursuit of fiscal plan, gas line.  Alaska Dispatch News To make it happen, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. paid $25,000 — $25,000 — to buy a silver sponsorship at the CWC World LNG and Gas ...

Panda and Aheer: Effort to win social license has been a failure, Calgary Herald. Calgary Herald Homepage ... It's why no one should be surprised that the Energy East pipeline project is facing new ... and the unemployment rate in Calgary threatening to hit double digits by Christmas, the NDP ... Instead of allowing pipeline projects and the NEB to be attacked by politicians Trudeau's pipeline remark puts focus on Pacific Northwest LNG project CBC.ca - "The Great Bear rainforest is no place for a crude oil pipeline and I haven't [...]

LATE AFTERNOON BREAKING NEWS (Scroll Down For Full Story): Commissioner Mack issues statement on Prudhoe Bay Unit decision (We'll let our savvy readers decide for themselves....  -dh) Attend the ALLIANCE's Annual Industry Update Forum in Fairbanks! -  An ALBERTA court case is boosting environmental clean-up costs in other provinces - A new venture for the ALASKA railroad: Liquefied natural gas delivery test could provide low-cost energy ... - "Shooting at their own feet" -dh: CANADIAN First Nations, US tribes form alliance to stop oil pipelines FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 23, 2016 Breaking Story, 3 P.M.: Commissioner [...]

TransCanada bid for new pipeline deal stirs fear of 10-year tolls AGDC and ConocoPhillips Execute MOU – Position for Next Steps AGDC News Release – The State of Alaska (through the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, or AGDC) and ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. have executed a Memorandum of Understanding MOU) regarding negotiations to form a joint venture company (JV) that could facilitate marketing LNG from the Alaska LNG project to global LNG markets and acquire North Slope gas, with the goal of bringing LNG buyers and North Slope wellhead sellers [...]

Here is Alaska's newest competitor.  Don't get mad at Canada, Alaskans.  Be responsible.  Quit blaming others for Alaska's geographic and political shortcomings.  Work on compensating for the state's stranded Arctic gas liabilities with competitive policies that attract rather than vilify investors!.    -dh Calgary Herald/CP A northwestern Alberta natural gas producer dismayed by Canada’s “grossly oversupplied” gas market is investing in a company that has vowed to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal on Vancouver Island. Calgary-based Seven Generations Energy says it will take a minority stake in [...]